A Brief History Of AASU Golf

Members of the 1967-68 Armstrong golf squad: (l-r) John Kelly, Toby Browne, Jim Pinard.

In 1975, Tom Carlyle advanced to the NCAA Division II National Championships.

Toby Browne was among the inductees into the Armstrong Atlantic State Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996.

In the 1967-68 season, Armstrong Junior College was in transition as well, becoming Armstrong State College, a four-year institution. That year, the Pirates, under head coach and athletic director Dr. Larry Tapp, enjoyed a tremendous debut in NAIA play. Led by future AASU Athletic Hall of Fame member Toby Browne, the Pirates captured the G.I.A.C. championship and the NAIA District 25 championship en route to a berth in the NAIA National Golf Championships in Bemidji, Minn. The Pirates placed 17th at the tournament, making a big splash in their first season as a varsity sport.

The following year, the Pirates defended their G.I.A.C. championships and again advanced to the NAIA District Championships where Bruce Smith captured individual medalist honors for AASU. Another key member of the team, Jim Pinard, became the first former Armstrong golfer to turn professional.

The Pirate golf program continued to be successful in NAIA play and, when Armstrong State entered NCAA Division II and joined the South Atlantic Conference, the golf program saw success there as well.

In 1974, the Pirates finished runner-up in the SAC and boasted two All-SAC golfers, Bob MacLaurin and Tom Carlyle. The following year, ASC finished third in the conference, again behind Tom Carlyle as the Pirate standout captured the SAC individual title and became the first ASC golfer to advance to the NCAA Division II National Championships.

At Nationals, Carlyle shot rounds of 77-79-30 to finish with a 236 score, placing 82nd in the field as an individual.

Armstrong State enjoyed further success in the South Atlantic Conference until the athletic department decided to drop the sport after the 1978-79 season. Five years later, when Armstrong State made the move into the Big South Conference and NCAA Division I status, athletic director Roy Sims reinstated the program and coached the Pirate golf team for three years of BSC competition.

Leaving the Big South and NCAA Division I forced the Pirate athletic department to drop men's golf again, but the sport has always remained a big part of the Savannah community with several successful amateur and professional golfers calling the low country home.

In the fall of 2000, AASU will compete in the Peach Belt Athletic Conference, the premier DII college golf conference in the nation, featuring three national champions in the past decade. Its teams are consistenly near the top in the Golfstat Division II team rankings and perennial participants in NCAA Regional and National competition.